1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording apparatus which can be loaded with an ink sheet cartridge provided with an ink sheet.
The term "recording apparatus" used herein covers, for example, a facsimile apparatus, an elecitronic typewriter, a copying apparatus, a printer apparatus, etc.
2. Related Background Art
Today, facsimile apparatuses have come to be widely used not only in offices, but also in homes. Therefore, compactness has been desired for facsimile apparatuses and the thermal recording system which can be readily made compact has been adopted as the recording system. The thermosensitive recording system using a thermosensitive sheet is generally used as the heat recording system, but in recent years, there has also been developed a facsimile apparatus of the so-called heat transfer recording type which can use plain paper.
The heat transfer recording system is such that the apparatus is loaded with a recording sheet roll comprising a substantial length of recording sheet wound on a core, and an ink sheet comprising a thin film having heat-meltable ink applied thereto, and the ink sheet is selectively heated by a recording head and melted ink is transferred to the recording sheet to thereby form images thereon.
In the heat transfer recording system described above, the ink sheet is very thin and therefore easily becomes wrinkled, and it requires much time and labor to load the apparatus body with the ink sheet without wrinkling the ink sheet. Also, the recording sheet, which is wound in the form of a roll, tends to become curled and if the recording sheet as it is curled is conveyed, a paper jam or the like will be liable to occur.
So, it has been conceived that as shown, for example, in FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings, an ink sheet 51 wound on a supply reel 50a and a take-up reel 50b is contained in a cartridge 52, which is made insertable into a lid member 53 to thereby facilitate the loading of the apparatus with the ink sheet 51.
Further, as the background art of the present invention, it has been conceived that as shown in FIG. 13, a decurling shaft 54 is mounted at the lower end of the cartridge 52 and the drive force of a platen motor 56 for driving a platen roller 55 is transmitted through a slide clutch 57 and an arm 58 rotatable in the direction of the arrow is mounted on the apparatus body 59 and a guide shaft 60 is mounted on one end of the arm 58 to thereby constitute a decurling mechanism. This decurling mechanism is such that when recording is to be effected by a recording head 62 with the ink sheet 51 and a recording sheet 61 being conveyed, the arm 58 is rotated and the recording sheet 61 is guided by the guide shaft 60 and the decurling shaft 52 to thereby bend the recording sheet 61 in the direction opposite to the curl inherent therein, thus curing the recording sheet 61 of the curl.
In the above-described construction, however, the loading of the apparatus body 59 with the ink sheet cartridge 52 is effected with the lid member 53 being opened at an angle substantially approximate to the vertical with respect to the apparatus body 59 and therefore, this makes it difficult to mount the ink sheet cartridge 52 accurately on a positioning member formed in the lid member 53.
As regards the decurling mechanism, the decurling shaft 52 is mounted on the ink sheet cartridge 52 and therefore, it depends on the dimensional accuracy of the ink sheet cartridge 52 to provide the positional accuracy of the decurling shaft 54 relative to the apparatus body 59, particularly the degree of parallelism of the decurling shaft to the platen roller 55. This may increase the cost of the ink sheet cartridge 52.